


PR is'nt all bad

by RaceWinnerCrossiant



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alpine 2022 AU, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Painting, excuse the poor french, idiots to lovers, please let them be team mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:47:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28808319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaceWinnerCrossiant/pseuds/RaceWinnerCrossiant
Summary: As entertaining as watching Pierre and Esteban fist fighting would be, the PR team need to think of something safe for the two himbos to do to help please the fans. They settle on a nice and easy paint your partner video. Should be easy enough, right?Fellas, I know Pierre can't art but please pretend he can.....
Relationships: Pierre Gasly/Esteban Ocon
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	PR is'nt all bad

To say that the Alpine PR team had a difficult time coming up with new content was a bit of an understatement. Everyone had tried to warn Laurent that while on paper two young French talents as teammates would be a match made in heaven, that the lore between the two drivers made this move an incredibly idiotic one. Despite the protests from Esteban's engineers, the words fell on deaf ears and the duo of Race Winner Pierre Gasly and Podium Sitter Esteban Ocon were signed on for 2022.

The pair often refused to interact off track and even more profusely refused to do PR shoots together, this threw a wrench into the hopes of replicating the lovable atmosphere in the much more successful Mclaren team. Nevertheless, the PR team were determined to get the two to cooperate and so the “Alpine, Paint Your Teammate Challenge” was born, hypothetically it would be easy to pull off as the pair would spend most of the time focused on the challenge and less time bickering.  
Hypothetically speaking that is.

Pierre stood waiting outside of the filming section of the Alpine headquarters while being debriefed by the marketing officer what they were filming today. He wasn't particularly looking forward to PR work seeing as he might have to bump into a certain asshole.

“So what exactly are we doing?” Pierre asked as he slipped off his shirt and swapped it for the appropriately sponsor covered Alpine collar shirt. It felt a little tight around his chest but he figured it wasn't bad enough to warrant a complaint, after all, it did accentuate his body rather nicely.  
“You’ll be doing a charity video similar to what Mclaren did for their Mind helmet video, but instead you’ll be a canvas piece. We'll be hosting a raffle afterwards.”

“Oh, so is Ocon doing it as well then?”

“Yes, but you and him won’t be doing the exact same thing, he’ll be painting something else.”

“Oh! That is pretty cool I guess, what am I going to paint?” the marketing officer quickly ushered the driver into the main filming room and sat him down on the little bar stool-esq chair in front of his canvas. He tied the artist apron around Pierre's waist and quickly handed him a pallet. It seemed as if he was running out of time or something as he tried to rush through everything as quickly as possible.

“So you have your paints on your left, your brushes on your right and there are cut out strips of masking tape and water on the table in the middle,” he gestured towards the center of the room. A small wooden table sat in the middle, what was interesting was that in green masking tape the portion of floor around it had been marked off with a small heart shaped area. Taped to the side of the table was an inconspicuous sign that read “friendship zone( Please don't fight I'm begging)”. Pierre's eyes gazed just past the table and he paused when he noticed something he didn't exactly like.

“Wait why is there another canvas set up over there?” Pierre asked, pointing at the identical set up just a little further down from the “friendship zone” table.

“....” the Alpine officer did a quick glance over at the clock, ignoring Pierre's question, then quickly typing something on his phone. Pierre didn't like that lack of an answer. It could only mean bad news.

“Don’t tell me that I’m doing this with-”

As if on cue the door on the other side of the room clicked open with a frustrated Frenchman and a severely underpaid marketing assistant.  
“Why can’t you tell me what we're doing? I should be able to know!” Esteban said frustratedly, throwing his hands up only to stop when he noticed the other two in the room. As he turned to face the room he locked eyes with his rival, and at that moment they both realized what was going on.

“No! Absolutely ridiculous! I’m not filming with that-that-knothead!” Esteban exclaimed making his way back to the door from which he entered. It seemed though that the assistant had expected this as before he could react she had already lunged forward effectively blocking the door. She stood firmly with her arms raised, a stern expression on her face.

“I’m sorry but I can’t let you leave! Mr. Rossi said you guys are doing this even if you two end up “Murdering each other on video”.” she declared looking him fiercely in the eyes. “His words not mine,” she quickly added realizing how frightening that sounded.

Esteban grumbled realizing he wasn't going to be able to argue his way out of this one. His eyes once again met with Pierres and grimaced. That seemed to spark something in Pierre as he stood up and pushed past the Alpine officer to confront him. 

“Oh don’t act like you're the one who is the victim here! Tu as une casse couille!” Pierre retorted now closing in on Esteban's personal bubble. Esteban smirked, he did love getting a kick out of the brunette.

“Hah! Short stack is looking to pick a fight huh?” Esteban smirked placing one head on his head and then one on Pierres before snickering at the height difference. To add a little more of a challenge he bent down at the wait now further getting closer to Pierre.

“Plouc!” Pierre retorted, now getting red in the face. He wasn't backing down and pressed closer.

“Raté!”

"Bête comme ses pieds!”

“Roi de cons!”  
“Oh my god, shut the fuck up you two!” The assistant shouted trying to separate the pair which were now within millilitres of each other's faces "Ce n'est pas la mer à boire! Just do the damn video so you guys can both leave faster!”

Both harumphing it seemed as if there was no choice in the matter and no amount of headache was going to convince PR to let them go.

“Fine,” they mumbled in unison.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite the circumstances, Pierre was a little bit excited at the fact that he was going to get a full three or so hours dedicated to painting. He wasn't too bad of an artist and he would definitely be using this opportunity to subtly flex on Ocon. Last he recalled the asshole wasn't past a 2nd grade level of art, Pierre was definitely going to rub it in after the fact. 

“Okay so for this challenge…” there was a slight pause from the marketing officer, “You’ll be painting each oth-”

“Ew! Who the hell is going to bid money on such an ugly face!” Esteban called out as he made a face at Pierre. 

“I’ll have you know that people online think I’m rather good looking!” Pierre retorted, angrily pointing back at him “From what I hear, people think you look like a rat!”  
Pierre wasn't going to disagree that Esteban did look a little bit rat-like but he also knew that despite it Esteban did have rather good facial proportions. Not that he would know, just what he's heard. Yeah. 

“At least rats are cute! Unlike your crusty bleached bangs,” Esteban ran a hand through his jet black hair and smirked, that one would rile him up for sure. At this point arguing had become common place, everytime he saw Pierre's stupid face he felt something that he assumed was general malice. He thoroughly enjoyed their little exchanges, each rebuttle they'd end up closer and closer together untill one of them had to chicken out. God he hated him.

Pierre instantly changed his mind, Esteban did not have a good face, he was a full on rat. 

“My bangs are fine! You're just jealous because you have a haircut like an asparagus head!”

"Oh-ho-ho is that the best you could think of? You look like a goat with your scruffy ass beard!" Pierre was thoroughly fuming at this point, it took everything in his body to restrain himself from murdering Ocon with his bare hands. If he had a nickel for every argument they've had since the season started he'd have enough to fill a sock and beat the shit out of him with it.

"Rat!"

"Goat!"

"Asparagus head!"

"Vettel!"

"V-vettel?"

"His hair cut from 2018. You know the one."

"Why are you such a pompe à chiasse?"

“Jesus Christ I feel sorry for the editors of this.” the Alpine officer muttered to his assistant before clapping his hands to try to get the two to focus again. “Guys come on, can’t you guys be nice to each other for one minute? Remember we’re doing this as a charity bid, which means for once it’s not about either of you two. I get that you two don't get along but for once maybe tolerate each other?”

That seemed to work as the pair ended their little argument and both ducked back behind their canvases. Marketing head rubbed his temples and just prayed that they'd get through the rest of this session without another fight.

Pierre was quick to begin mixing paints and occasionally glancing around his canvas to catch a quick glance at his subject. It seemed that he was taking this rather seriously and began roughing out a sketch of his rival's face. What an ugly face, he thought to himself as he intensely stared trying to pick up as many small details as he could. Though he wouldn't need to much guidance as he already had a pretty good idea of all of Ocon's best features.  
Esteban on the other hand was a little bit lost. The last time he’d picked up an art supply, he normally would have tried to bullshit his way through it and get out as quickly as possible, but seeing Pierre's stupid smug face he desperately wanted to wipe that smirk off of it. Esteban was certain he was going to have the better painting.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite his best efforts to spend longer on his work, Esteban had finished rather quickly and now had to sit waiting in anticipation for what Pierre had done. The two PR members had left after they were certain the two were actually working and not plotting each other's murderers. Now it was just the two of them alone together.

It felt weird as the brunette would turn back every few minutes from behind his canvas to study his face. Each time Pierre peaked up at him, he’d feel a strange heat rising in his cheeks, he’d fidget with his collar a little, feeling like he was melting a little under Pierre's curious gaze. 

When the Frenchman would return to his painting Esteban couldn't help but stare as he smiled each time he returned to his work. He’d stick out his tongue and hold his breath at tricky parts, arch his eyebrows, and make squinty faces as he checked over the details. Esteban marvelled at his jawline and continued to watch those sky blue eyes. He felt his eyes roaming up and down Pierre's body and his eyes began to drink in all of his lovely features. He was mesmerized by how Pierre's hands moved with such precision and purpose, the way his arm muscles would loosen and tighten so methodically made him swallow a gulp. Who the hell had let him wear such a tight shirt!?

Pierre was really into this, really into painting him. Esteban flushed thinking about the fact that Pierre was so observantly watching him. He felt a little self-conscious, what if Pierre was really judging him? After all, he was trying to capture his likeness, what if Pierre was doing all this just to reveal a mocking painting of him. Maybe he was just enjoying his mean attempt at getting a reaction out of him.

“Mate, can you stop moving so much when I’m trying to paint?” Pierre muttered not looking up from his canvas. He began tensing his arms as he made quick staccato-like strokes, doing a quick flick of his wrist at the end of each stroke.

“I-wah!?” Esteban blinked realizing he’d not only been creepily staring at Pierre but also his leg had begun jittering up and down like a rabbit.

“Fidgeting. Every time I look at you, you're either fidgeting or looking away! Do you know how hard it is for me to make you look decent?” Pierre joked, his eyes crinkled as he laughed at Esteban's shy reaction. Esteban felt a light tug in his heart as he looked at his smiling face. His lips looked so pink and kissable...

“Well maybe if you didn't look at me so intensely each time I wouldn't have to turn away! Weirdo,” Esteban huffed and tried to make it look like he was still painting, mimicking the brush strokes Pierre made earlier with an empty hand. He’d been caught in the act and now all he could do was try his best to feign innocence. Pierre quirked a brow, not entirely buying Esteban's little act.

“Weirdo? You're the one making it weird, I’m just trying to make a nice painting,” Pierre scoffed and kept working, trying to ignore his teammate. “Oh merde, I swear mixed the right skin colour earlier.” He looked again at Esteban and then back down at his pallet, Pierre pulled out the red and began adding dollops of it into his skin tone.

Esteban's eyes grew into saucers as he realized how red he probably looked and buried his face into his hands to try to hide the growing heat in his face. Fuck, and Pierre had noticed it too. He began wishing that something would just kill him on the spot, he was going to personally murder whoever had thought that this was a good video idea.

“Heh, it's pretty cute how much of a tomato you look like right now,” Pierre commented nonchalantly as he stood up to go place his brushes into the water jar. In actuality, he was more than a bit amused at how badly Esteban's “subtle” glance attempts had been.

“I am not a tomato!” Esteban crossed his arms trying to avoid looking at Pierre.

“Oh really?” Pierre felt an opportunity arise, normally it was Esteban taking the piss at him but now the shoe was on the other foot. He dumped his brushes into the jar and made his way over to his flustered teammate. “Would a ruby be a better word then?”

“Stop that!” Esteban felt his breath quicken at the nickname.

“Mhm, what about cherry then?”

“It- no, if you say that people are going to think-”

“Think what?” Pierre smiled innocently, bending down to Esteban's level and grabbing onto his wrist.

“It s-sound's too much like Cheri,” Estaban sputtered trying to back away from the approaching man. He felt the heat radiating off of Pierre's body as slyly moved forward.

“Mhm? Really? I hadn't noticed.”

“You bastard!"

“Cherry then, I like that nickname,” Pierre placed a finger under Esteban's chin and lifted his face closer to his. Esteban closed the gap between the two and felt Pierre smile as he gave in to the kiss. Pierre wrapped his arms around his teammate and began chewing on Esteban's bottom lip.

“I feel bad for the editors,” Esteban thought as he deepened the kiss, slipping his tongue down Pierre's throat. He didn't care though, he was enjoying this too much to care.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
"I don't get paid enough for this," an Alpine editor moaned as he watched back the footage. It was going to be a long night.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations (Fellas I don't actually know French so if its a bit dodgy that's why)  
> Tu as une casse couille! -> Your an asshole  
> Plouc -> Bumpkin  
> Raté -> Failure  
> Bête comme ses pieds -> Stupid as your feet but it basically just means your an absolute idiot  
> Roi de cons - "King of fools/ King of idiots"  
> Ce n'est pas la mer à boire -"it's not like you have to drink the ocean which is an expression for "It's not that difficult!""  
> pompe à chiasse - "Diarreha pump, referring to the fact that they are "Full of shit""  
> Cheri -"Dear"
> 
> Second fic! Wahoo, I can't believe I spent 2 hours writing this, I am too invested in this stupid ship. Uh probably lots of cringe, my monkey brain can't proof read.


End file.
